Anyway, I hope CA will take a break & reconsider. Officers needa place to interact w/ other officers to become better officers, and we don't get that at our Sqs. That same saying I've used before, "leadership is not taught, it's caught." That means you need to have conversations w/ good officers about anything & just talking to them, being around them, watching them talk to others is how you learn to be a leader. There is a lot of good in the portal, and it went well beyond a silly announcement or resource site, and I hope we haven't seen the last of it.

I heartily concur. In spite of all the heated comments that were sometimes posted, there was alot of good information exchanged on the portal. I was actively following several of the discussions just as a way of staying informed about what is going on in CAP across the country.

How else would we have known about the big changes in Iowa, for example?

Information is the most useful resource we have, and I'm sad to see one of the sources go away. I also hope it will return.

But part of it (and I don't want to speak out of turn for him, really, but I don't think he'll mind) is that he's not thrilled with the tenor and tone that many of the so-called "member participation" CAP sites have taken on. Instead of being burgeoning pots of gold-plated information nuggets for new & old members alike, they've become festering sores of dissent, acrimony and scuttlebutt. And CA just doesn't want to contribute to the rumor and innuendo mills.

And I don't blame him.

I have to say, I agree to an extent. I guess that's one reason my posting dropped off. I'm guessing its the same of a host of others that started of posting and then "disappeared". I think there was too much time spent grumbling about policy and what some wish CAP was. I think we missed an opportunity to truly make the organization better. Instead we got ourselves stuck in the weeds and stayed there.

For those that think you've lost the greatest thing since bicycles for Christmas, A) I can't believe you're complaining about the loss of a CAP forum on a CAP forum (says a lot about what you think of this forum!), B) you're welcome to start your own CAP-related forum. In fact, from what I saw on CivilAirPortal, some of you should have. Maybe "whatiwishcapwas.com".

My decision to remove Civil Air Portal from the online CAP community was not without much consideration, which I might add, went on for several weeks.

Although I did not discuss it with NIN last night, it is a fact that I will be taking on increased responsibilities as a Coast Guard Auxiliarist. In particular, I will be assisting an active duty Coast Guard Sector with revamping and maintaining it's website. Although I will enjoy serving the Coast Guard a lot, this has not been a factor in the closing of CAPortal. What has been, however, is my CAP duties at the squadron and even more so at the wing level. Like so many CAP officers, I wear several hats. To my credit, or misfortune, (depending how you look at it) some of these hats feel like the ten-gallon kind and I only have so much CAP time in a week to devote to them.

For those who admonish me for closing the site, I say how dare you! It is more than likely that you have been the problem rather than the answer. The mods I selected did a fine job policing the site without overstepping their boundaries. A real problem, however, is that a great many officers have refused to police themselves. Being a part of all the CAPolitical punditry has grown very tiresome, and has been surpassed only by witnessing the same in others.

Civil Air Portal has gone over it's allotted bandwidth for many months and costs me considerably. To those who have contributed much of their time there and are left feeling troubled, I share your feelings. I assure you I take no joy from closing CAPortal and I encourage you to use this site, as well as CAPblog to share your ideas and develop yourselves as officers. Edit: As an aside, please consider saving your portalpeople to another space on the Web, because the files on CAPortal will go *poof* in a week.

For those who admonish me for closing the site, I say how dare you! It is more than likely that you have been the problem rather than the answer. The mods I selected did a fine job policing the site without overstepping their boundaries. A real problem, however, is that a great many officers have refused to police themselves. Being a part of all the CAPolitical punditry has grown very tiresome, and has been surpassed only by witnessing the same in others.

Well, thank you again for your hard work & dedication! I don't think I've seen anyone admonish you for taking it down, perhaps the suddenness, but not your right to do it, more a lamenting that it's gone as a place to make us better.

Personally, I believe we grow thru a little conflict, and come together working to solve the problems we define - that's Monroe's Doctrine of Cognitive dissonance if you're interested. What I liked about the portal was the synergy that came from a group that drove you to develop good ideas & work them to conclusion. It doesn't matter if you actually accomplish any of those ideas, it'd be nice, but you test & increase your ability by the process itself.

I hate the politics of CAP as much as anyone, but I don't believe you can stay low & do he job in front of you. We all influence actions & policy, even if it's just locally, and that in turn to a degree moves CAP incrementally in one direction or another. I don't think you can escape it & you might as well embrace it. Actually I think it's the duty of every member to drive that process within the context of their job(s). Defining where CAP should be out in the future is not a bad thing. Core values & vision statements lead to strategic planning, which with a little leadership lead to a team concept working toward big picture goals. It's a basic need of any organization to do these things & sell their people on board. The AF does it, but CAP is at very least deficient at communicating those things to the force much less selling them, so people respond with a natural human response to fill the void. That may not be the best way, but it's good that our people are displaying that kind of responsibility & willing to be accountable. I thought the portal created a great place for a lot of that process to function in a natural way you'd get inside a normal military unit but you can't get easily in most of CAP.

Again, I'm sorry to see the thing go, I'm sorry if it stressed anyone too much along the way, and I especially want to that you CA, and the others involved for what it was while it lasted. I hope CAP can take advantage of such communications tools in the future to bring us things virtually that are not a logistic possibility in wide-spread small CAP units w/o a lot of background training.

Tedda provided a source of information that I have never found on any other boards. For example where else would the new Iowa Plan be found. And member uploads such as the Project Boot I uploaded and was downloaded by 35 board members to help recruiting. I never got a PortalPerson, since none ever applied to me. The first place I logged into every day was Civil AirPortal. It was a unique board that was of great value to the members. Oh sure there was some bickering, but last I heard most of us (including cadets) were mature enough to accept it. The Portal offered valid arguements pro and con, on a variety of subjects that apply to most CAP Squadrons and members. I will sorely miss it. Thanks Tedda for all your efforts, needless to say it WAS appreciated.